Private funding will contribute more to the film, TV and new media industries this year than the federal government will to the Canadian Television Fund.

The 22 major private funders got together last year – after the CRTC cut the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund by 40% – to prepare a presentation for the CRTC and Department of Canadian Heritage. The funders crunched the numbers and concluded they had contributed more than $65 million to approved projects in the previous year (2002). The majority of that was development and production funding, while more than $13 million was interim financing through the Rogers Telefund.

By comparison, due to the feds’ $25-million cuts to the CTF budget this year and last, and the fact that last year’s budget borrowed $12.5 million against this year’s, the government contribution to the CTF is $62.5 million for 2004.

‘It’s a very positive story in this time of doom and gloom – that there actually is some alternative financing of some significance out there,’ says Andra Sheffer, executive director the Independent Production Fund, the Cogeco Program Development Fund and the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund.

The private funds were devised by the CRTC as contributions required from BDUs, purchase and merger benefit packages, conditions of licence, endowments and special government allocations.

While Sheffer is proud of the private funders’ contribution, she does not want to downplay the continuing need for strong public support. One fear is that the Martin government, yet to reveal its CTF plans, might point to the private funds available as a reason for not restoring its annual contribution to the CTF to $100 million.

‘[Producers] need the $25 million more that they are demanding,’ Sheffer says.

And not all is rosy on the private side, either. Both the Cogeco and Bell funds had Feb. 2 application deadlines, and Sheffer reports competition to be stiff for the latest rounds. If the development stream of the Cogeco Fund was oversubscribed last year by three or four to one, Sheffer would characterize this year’s rate as five or six to one.

‘Cogeco is the most oversubscribed fund that we have,’ Sheffer says, citing an ‘incredible amount of development going on.’

The Cogeco Fund supports the development of series, MOWs, miniseries and pilots in one stream and production of all these formats except series in another. For production of drama series for private broadcasters, producers can go to the IPF, created by communications giant Maclean Hunter. Meanwhile, the Bell Fund helps finance the onscreen and online initiatives of broadcast programs with a strong Internet presence.

Despite the recent outcry about a dearth of Canadian drama, Sheffer says there are actually many series and MOWs with broadcaster commitments in the development pipeline. Of course, the rest of the funding has to then fall into place for production to move forward, and broadcasters license many programs knowing that only a fraction will close their funding. The IPF’s latest deadline was Feb. 15, and the results will provide a clearer idea as to how many dramas will actually be greenlit in 2004.

The Cogeco Fund, which contributed $2.3 million a couple of years ago, is down to about $1.7 million this year.

‘That’s two less projects right there,’ Sheffer notes, as the fund contributes $200,000 to $250,000 towards MOWs. She adds that English-language drama will take a further hit this year, because English-language shows dominated the cash awarded in the last several rounds, and with more French-language projects coming out of Quebec, the fund is looking to provide a fairer split between the sectors.

‘In all, we’ll probably do three or four less [English] MOWs this year than last,’ Sheffer says.

The Cogeco Fund’s production stream is calculated as 1% of Cogeco Cable revenues, and a drop in its contribution can be attributed to the company’s smaller subscription affiliates no longer having to pay into it. Meanwhile, the contributions of the IPF and the Cogeco Fund’s development stream are generated from interest on endowments – $35 million and $5 million, respectively – and lower interest rates have accounted for hundreds of thousands of dollars less this year.

Although some funds have less compared to the figures from 2002, the total contribution from private funders has since been buoyed by the arrival of new initiatives including Toronto 1’s New Voices and Priority Program funds, a $15 million commitment over the station’s seven-year licence term.

The CTF’s incorporation of broadcaster performance envelopes this year means more projects coming the private funders’ way and greater pressure for the privates to make the ‘right’ decisions. Private funders announce their decisions prior to the CTF, and having private fund commitments would help sway a broadcaster that the project is worthy of support through the broadcaster’s envelope; more projects will therefore seek that initial approval.

-www.ipf.ca